By Gerard Best
CJ Contributor
Above: Bevil Wooding, left, one of the founders of CaribNOG, leads a session at the seventh installment of the regional technology development event, held in Roseau, Dominica (Photo: CaribNOG)
ROSEAU – Regional and international technology experts are gathering in Dominica this week to address Caribbean technology challenges and to collaboratively derive solutions that are relevant to the region.
The Caribbean Network Operators Group, CaribNOG, is hosting its seventh regional meeting in the island’s capital city, Roseau.
The meeting, which launched April 28, continues through May 2.
CaribNOG is a forum for network technicians and technology professionals from across the region to share experiences and participate in expert-led, high-tech training exercises and hands-on technical workshops.
“The Caribbean is at an interesting juncture with respect to its growing dependence on Internet-related technologies,” said Bevil Wooding, one of the founders of CaribNOG. “The region is extremely vulnerable to cyber attacks and has to take steps to develop its technical human resource capacity. CaribNOG is key part of the response to that challenge.”
Wooding cited examples from around the world where similar volunteer groups have emerged and now collaborate to help protect local networks against mounting threats, and to keep pace with technology change.
CaribNOG 7 follows a series of workshops and training events held across the Caribbean in 2013, including two regional meetings in Barbados (CaribNOG 5) and Belize (CaribNOG 6).
Sessions are focusing on network design, mobile network infrastructure, cyber security, Internet Exchange Point management and cloud infrastructure.
Stephen Lee, CaribNOG’s programme coordinator, described the work of the volunteer-based group as “invaluable for advancing the technical skills of ICT professionals in the region who design, manage or secure the network infrastructure.”
The CaribNOG meeting is being streamed via the Internet for remote participants. Participants are drawn from the Caribbean, Latin America and North America and as far away as Europe and Africa.
The event is being hosted by the Dominican National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) at the Fort Young Hotel in the Dominica’s capital, Roseau.